Guest Blog: My Mother’s Memoir: Part 3

These are but a few of many small tragedies and humiliations the Luby family experienced during those years. Although sometimes deprived, the family learned to thrive. Mom and her siblings protected and cared for each other. The kids worked and played on the farms and learned a tough resilience that I think most of us just do not know.

As a young girl, I remember times sitting at restaurant tables for lunch with mom and several of her sisters reminiscing. It transported me into their early lives. The girls would succumb to near-hysterical laughter. We would inevitably draw notice from the nearby tables. This was how all Luby family gatherings were my entire life.

The Lubys all married. Mom married my father Lee Allen and together they raised five children. I am the second child. At my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary in the early 1960s the cousin head count was approaching 45. I have a vague memory of singing the song “Yellow Bird” with my younger sister Leslie as part of the entertainment during the celebration.

Our publisher, Mr. Adams was so patient with me, a godsend. We worked by phone and email, sending corrected manuscripts back and forth. During this time mom once again asked me to finish her memoir and I reassured her I would work on it. She suffered some health setbacks and her husband worried about whether she would live to see the final version. We completed it in three months.

We presented Bonnie Jean’s finished memoir to her, among her family members, around her 80th birthday last year. It was a smash hit, with requests for more copies. Mom was over-the-moon happy.
P.S. — See below bonus links to memoirs by or about other mothers.